For background to this letter, see my blog, It’s All About Seed. You do not have to trust in your own power or knowledge to make God’s gospel effective – just present it clearly and depend upon the amazing power of God’s Word and the work of His Spirit. God seems to delight in using weak people to present this powerful message because He gets all the glory (1 Cor. 1:31).
Remember last month we learned that God created human life on this earth through the first man, Adam. The Second Man of the Trinity breathed into him two lives, physical and spiritual (Gen. 2:7). God made Adam, who was taken from the soil, the representative head for all humanity because we all came from him, from dust (Genesis 3:19). God then took the woman from the man’s rib making her responsible to God through the man (Genesis 2:22). The woman was deceived by Satan and sinned, taking a bite from the forbidden fruit. She then gave to her husband, and he knowingly ate with no deception and no pressure. At that moment both the man and the woman became separated from God spiritually, and they clearly knew it. Their nakedness became a source of shame, and they quickly stitched for themselves some clothes of fig leaves. Adam’s fall was complete – including his seed which became corrupt seed.
Adam and Eve began to generate human life. I say “generate” because every human being from then until now had to come from them born through Adam’s corrupt seed. Everyone that is, with one notable exception – the Lord Jesus Christ. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Speaking to Mary, God said, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest will overshadow you, the Holy One who is born will be called the Son of the Highest” (Luke 1:35).
The words of the virgin Mary shout to us when she realized that she was pregnant. “How is this possible since I do not know a man?” (Lk. 1:34). This makes Jesus Christ unique, One of a kind. The only One not born of the corrupt seed. This act made it possible for Him to die for the sin of many (Heb. 9:28; Isa. 53:12).
Another way to think about this is that from the time of the fall of Adam until now marks an entire civilization of fallen human beings. This is what makes Jesus’ “born again” words to Nicodemus absolutely critical. In order to make it into God’s kingdom, God has to regenerate the sinner. Note the change from “generate” to “regenerate,” which means to give spiritual life a second time. This life comes by a new birth (John 3:1-3) or this new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). God illustrated the giving of His life to Adam and Eve by covering (in my opinion) the fig leaf work of their hands with the skins of animals, beautifully foreshadowing the blood sacrifice of Christ (Gen. 3:21). It does not say that God first removed the fig leaves, He simply covered them. God calls His new life regeneration. To generate is to give life a first time and to regenerate is to give life – spiritual life – a second time (Titus 3:5). This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, or he would not see the kingdom of God.
Peter made this clear when he wrote “Having been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, by the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Pet. 1:23-25). Then he further stated that God’s Word that brings salvation comes in the form of the gospel. “Now this is the word [God’s Word] by which the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Pet. 1:25). The spiritual seed that brings spiritual life is the Word of God in the shape of the gospel. This is why Jesus said that His disciples were already clean because of the word which He had spoken to them (John 15:3). As water physically cleanses, God’s Word spiritually cleans. This also explains Jesus strange words to Nicodemus “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Water symbolizes God’s Word applied by the Holy Spirit.
Only God can germinate new life through the gospel of His grace. Putting fallen seed in a petri dish or into the ground does not make germination happen automatically. Germination happens when God makes it happen – period. Salvation occurs when the Holy Spirit guides the seed of God’s Word in the form of the gospel to the womb of the minds of sinners and germinates it.
God, speaking through Isaiah, makes this action of germination extremely clear. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Now more about the water! “For as the rain [water] comes down, and the snow [water] from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth [soil] and make it bring forth and bud [germination] that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater [result of germination]. So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth and it shall prosper [flourish] in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:8-11). God’s Word is like His living water flowing from His mouth (John 4:10). The water of God’s Word always does His will, always. God’s Word will always be successful. God’s Word never fails to accomplish His purpose – never.
Jesus gave Nick an illustration that he could not miss. Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Hearing is the key to understand Christ’s symbolic language. Jesus said that you can hear the wind blow but cannot determine where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone who is born of God. The gospel is to be communicated, and it is to be heard.
Jesus commanded, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). But some really hear it and some do not! He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).
Paul wrote, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish” (John 10:27).
James wrote, “Of His own will [God’s choice] He brought us forth [He birthed us] by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:18-19).
Jesus also said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 11:15). And John Mark added this note from our Lord, “And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:9).
Only God can germinate life. Human beings can manipulate seed through altering the DNA, but no human being can give life when there is no life. This is the meaning behind the story of Lazurus and why Jesus waited until Lazarus was really dead – even to the point of decay – before He acted. No physically dead human being can be made alive by other humans. No spiritually dead human being can be given life by other spiritually dead humans. No spiritually dead human being can be made alive without the living seed of the gospel. And only God can give this life through this seed. And no sinful human being can be born again without the work of the Spirit guiding the truth of the seed of the gospel to them, and then germinating it. It is a twofold heavenly supernatural work. And the success of this work depends upon God not upon us.
I heard the story of a fugitive from justice from India named Ramad. He was hiding from the law holed up in a thatched roof hut in India. He was rummaging through his stuff and came across a little black book. It did not impress him at first, but he quickly realized that its pages were just the right thickness to roll his cigarettes. He began to use it as such. Every day after a meal, he would tear a little page from the book and roll his cigarette. Then he realized that he could read the writing on the thin pages, so he began to read a page before he rolled his cigarette. The little black book was the Bible. The words began to echo in Ramad’s mind like they were being heard. He soon understood the gospel of God’s magnificent grace and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and gladly turned himself in to the law. The power of God’s word (the gospel) coupled with the work of God’s Spirit (opening a dead mind to understand it), worked again.
